Souvenir Photo Studio, by Al Bourassa: Thursday May 11, 2017 Herederos

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Thursday May 11, 2017

Buzzer is such a pleasure to get around the city, when the weather is allowing me. The clouds look like they are threatening most of the time but I can't let that stop me unless they are really dark and ominous. Today I had to run up to the bus station to get my ticket for tomorrow, then gas up, and run to the bank. It kinda shocked me that I was able to accomplish all that so quickly on Buzzer.

Cristina is so happy to be having regular sightings and visits from her rescue Tanagers. She talks to them through the window so the neighbors must wonder who she is talking to in such endearing terms...

Many of us expats are very concerned about proposed changes to the government social security system here, the IESS, which also runs the medical system. I joined some time back in case of catastrophe and by George, I did have one, so I was glad to have paid into the system. However the proposed changes are going to seriously affect our bottom line so we are listening to a lot of advice, even though a lot of it is certainly not comparing apples to apples when it comes to private insurance which comes with restricted levels of coverage, and introduces the hated co-pays, deductibles, etc, and then don't cover everything...

My Canadian pension is $1,421.91 which, at the current value of the Loonie vs the US dollar, and removing 4% for the bank exchange, my "take-home" pay amounts to $1,008.45. For my wife and I, the scuttlebutt is that the IESS premiums will now be 21% of the amount of income stated for our original Visa, which in my case, was right on the minimum required of $900.00 for 2 people, 5 years ago. So the premium should be $189 a month which doesn't leave much to live on... Good thing we don't have to pay rent.. Then they say that they have access to the Government records but they want us to prove this income.... So does that mean that I have to make an appointment, run out to Azogues, get copies of the records myself, and then run in to IESS to beg them to keep me? One of the other Canadians said that we could write to a Diana Calle at IESS who speaks English (pretty sure this is the same Diana that worked at Banco Pichincha when we first came here), but she is not responding to my questions. Anyway, this is so typical of backward Ecuadorian bureaucracy and customer service. Maybe returning to self-insurance is the way to go. I am certainly leaning that way right now because I hate having to deal with Government BS. A move to Colombia is looking more attractive again..

I certainly have no idea where time goes but it is already 5.5 years here in Ecuador. I feel my age now, but only because of the accident and I keep working hard to clear my body of its effects but that is much slower than expected. I am getting pretty tired of feeling like an electrical super-conductor 24-7.

I am pretty well packed to head for the airport in Guayaquil tomorrow then enjoy the coast for a couple of days. I am traveling light so I am going to try to make do with the new Lumix because most of my photos should be daylight pics anyway. I am going to try to get away with a single backpack....

Cristina found a neighbour's Bassett hound on the loose so she brought it into the house, much to the consternation of our dogs. She is pretty sure that it belongs to a house across the street but nobody's home, probably working at the hospital, so we may not be able to return the dog until morning.

The sky looked forgiving so I went to join the Herederos for the Thursday night ride. Funny thing, the Broken Bridge Tavern was closed up tonight... I get so frustrated having to wait for this group. They ask people to arrive at 7:30 but we didn't leave until 8:40. We started off on a nice route then ran into a bit of rain around Las Americas and Primero de Mayo so we doubled back to the Millenium Mall area where they stopped at the restaurant of somebody's cousin. I just bade my goodbyes and came home to process these few photos.

I hope you enjoy the photos. That was the day’s excitement.

Cheers, Al

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